Shani Davis

Shani Earl Davis (born August 13, 1982) is an American former speed skater.

Davis was born on Friday, August 13, 1982, in Chicago, Illinois, to Reginald Shuck and Cherie Davis.

His father selected the name "Shani" from an African name dictionary; the name translates "to adventure."

His mother, Cherie, worked for a local lawyer who happened to be a speed skating official and at whose suggestion, Cherie enrolled Shani at the Robert Crown Center in nearby Evanston when he was six years old.

She and Davis moved from the South Side neighborhood of Hyde Park to Rogers Park on Chicago's North Side to be closer to his skating club.

At 16, Davis was invited to Lake Placid, New York, to participate in a development program for young speed skaters.

After training there for a year, Davis decided to pursue his Olympic dreams and moved to Marquette, Michigan, to further his training.

There, he would graduate from Marquette Senior High School, where he ran track his senior year.

Davis earned spots on both the long track and short track teams at the 1999 junior world championship, simultaneously making the national team.

In 2000, he made history by becoming the first U.S. skater to make the long and short track teams at the Junior World Teams, a feat he would accomplish again in 2001 and 2002.

His height has always made him unique among short trackers, who are much shorter.

The extra height made it easier for Davis to race low to the

ice.

In December 2001, Davis was in Utah to compete for a spot on the 2002 Winter Olympics short track team.

Teammates Apolo Ohno and Rusty Smith already had slots on the six-man team, and Ron Biondo was a lock for the third spot; Davis needed to finish first in the final race to qualify.

Ohno and Smith were both participating, and Ohno had been dominant; a win by Davis seemed to be a long shot.

In a major surprise, Davis won the 1000m race, with Smith second and Ohno third.

Davis's first-place finish earned him enough points to move past Tommy O'Hare in the final point standings; he now qualified for sixth place.

Davis became the first African-American skater to earn a spot on the team.

The euphoria of the victory was short-lived, however.

Rumors began to swirl that Ohno and Smith—both good friends of Davis—intentionally threw the race in order to let Davis win the event.

O'Hare filed a formal complaint.

For three days, Ohno, Smith and Davis stood before an arbitration panel as three of their fellow skaters testified that they heard Ohno telling Smith that he was going to let Davis win.

Davis won the silver medal at the 2004 World Allround Speed Skating Championships.

He then proceeded to win the World Allround Championships in both 2005 and 2006.

Davis would go on to win a bronze medal in the Team Relay at the 2005 World Short Track Championships in Beijing, China, shared by U.S. teammates Apolo Ohno, Rusty Smith and Alex Izykowski.

At the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy, Davis became the first African American athlete to win a gold medal in an individual event at the Olympic Winter Games, winning the speedskating 1000 meter event.

He also won a silver medal in the 1500 meter event.

In 2009, he won the World Sprint Championships in Moscow, the site of his first World Allround Championship victory.

When Davis won those events, he became the second male skater to win both the Sprint and Allround in his career, after Eric Heiden.

He has won six World Single Distance Championships titles, three at 1500 meters (in 2004, 2007 and 2009) and three at 1000 meters (in 2007, 2008 and 2011), and he led the United States to its first and only World Championship gold medal in the Team Pursuit event in 2011.

He has won ten career Overall World Cup titles, six at 1000 meters (in 2006, 2008–10, 2012, 2014) and four at 1500 meters (2008–2011).

He held the top spot on the world Adelskalender list after taking the lead from Sven Kramer in March 2009 for a little over ten years until Patrick Roest surpassed him in March 2019.

The Adelskalender ranks the all-time fastest long track speed skaters by personal best times in the four World Allround Championship distances.

Davis is known for his consistency and technical proficiency.

Davis is a native of Chicago, Illinois, and trained at two U.S. Olympic training facilities, the Pettit National Ice Center in West Allis, Wisconsin, and the Utah Olympic Oval in Salt Lake City, Utah.

At the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, he repeated the feat, becoming the first man to successfully defend the 1000 meters and repeating as the 1500 meter silver medalist.

Davis also earned the title of Grand World Cup Champion for the 2013–14 season, earning the most points across all distances.

His 58 career individual victories on the ISU Speed Skating World Cup circuit (through March 2014) place him second all-time among men.

Davis has set a total of nine world records.